Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2012 about Communities on Saturday 10th March

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• Communities of Transparency: Open Data in Action

  by Francisca Rojas and Frank Hebbert

  Many cities and public agencies are opening up their data to promote accountability, empower citizens, and deliver better services. But just releasing data is not enough to achieve these desired outcomes. Most open government initiatives are supply-side efforts that release data that is too obscure, too complex, or too out of date to be valuable to citizens. This session explores three open data cases where we have seen success (public transit), failure (federal spending), and promise (open311). We show how co-production between policymakers, techies, and civic innovators is crucial to translating data into useful information for a targeted audience of local, yet diverse, users. In these communities of transparency, leadership, collaboration, local knowledge, feedback loops, and iterative design work together to forge the pathways for more meaningful transparency and participation in our communities.

  • Communities
  • Open Data
  • Transparency

  At 3:30pm to 4:30pm, Saturday 10th March

  In Room 9ABC, Austin Convention Center

  Coverage audio clip

• The Social Organization

  by Mark McDonald

  Not all organizational challenges or objectives are best handled by social communities of employees, advocates, fans, etc. Gartner explains how to determine when a community can get the job done better, when it won’t and the risks of misapplying social communities for a brand's reputation, business objectives and relationships with key audiences. This session will highlight the experiences of organizations across a number of industries to illustrate the power of communities and related best practices and mishaps.

  • Brands
  • Communities

  At 3:30pm to 3:50pm, Saturday 10th March

  In Ballroom G, Austin Convention Center

  Coverage audio clip

• Sex Nets: Pickup Artists vs. Feminists

  by Adam Lyons, Amanda Marcotte, Kristin Cerda, Clarisse Thorn and Charlie Nox

  Are sex-positive feminism and pickup artistry inherently opposed? Are they possibly dependent on each other? In recent years, the popularity of the pickup artist movement has placed the subject in popular cultural locations such as MTV and Oprah. The internet is ever birthing new discussions on all sides of the debate, and the realities of social media and geolocation technologies makes finding and building niche communities easier than ever. Are these methods helping average guys score, or is it an avenue to breed sexual predators? For or against, people from many backgrounds are weighing in on a discussion that is rooted in the most basic mediums of the web. Join a panel of men and women ranging from seasoned pick-up artists, to outspoken feminist bloggers, to those who straddle the line. No longer talking at each other, these experts in their fields will debate with each other the realities of the new sex rules, and what these rules mean in the context of a mediated life.

  • Communities
  • feminisim
  • Relationships
  • Sex

  At 6:30pm to 7:30pm, Saturday 10th March

  In Capital Ballroom B, InterContinental Stephen F. Austin